Summer Beauty Roulette/Project Pan Goals

As I flip through my beauty notebook and examine my progress during the spring semester, I'm a little stunned by how well I did. I managed to finish half of what I set out to finish (highlighted in orange), and only two items remain mostly full in my collection: the Maybelline Dream Lumi Pen in Radiant, which I use as an undereye corrector, and my Imaginary Authors Cobra and the Canary sample vial. There are a few items that I disposed of despite not finishing them 100% (highlighted in blue), but I'm not fussed: Haus of Gloi Sol and my previous tube of MAC Strobe Cream only had a few more uses in them, and that MAC Viva Glam Gaga lipglass was too old for my comfort.

Making the tiniest dent in the Maybelline pen really reminded me of something: generally speaking, I am not a "heavy makeup" wearer. That's not to say that I don't use a lot of different products, or that I never do a full face of makeup. It's more that my preference runs toward "very thin layers of everything," and that includes my undereye corrector. Today, when I applied this bad boy under my eyes with some NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer, I noticed just how little of this stuff I use.

I'll be tossing this tube of Dream Lumi at the end of summer, just because it's Of A Certain Age, but I'm curious to see how much further I can get with it before that time.

I'll also continue tracking my purchases for summer. It was fascinating to see what I spent in spring! Here are the rough numbers:

TOTAL SPENT: $719.29

STAPLES: $116.00

TOTAL CASH SPENT: $359.11

RETURNED FOR CASH: $217.25

TOTAL CASH SPENT AND KEPT: $141.86

That $700+ total just about knocked me off of my feet when I first calculated it. Then I calculated how much I spent in cash (not gift cards, store credit, etc.), and I still felt a bit icky. $360! That's a lot to spend on beauty products.

Of course, the amount of stuff I paid for with cash, then returned ($217.25 worth) is relevant. It represents a resolution I made this year: that I would stop being such a wimp and would take advantage of US retailers' very generous return policies. So if I didn't love something, I returned it. In the end, I spent $141.86 in cash if you cut out the returns. Okay, that's not too scary, but it's still higher than I'd like over a less-than-5-month period, especially since I won't have nearly as many gift cards to satiate me for the rest of the year. (My birthday is in April.)

For now, my main goal is to resist excessive purchases and instead see how far I can get with some of my staple products. I already noted where I was on certain items in April.

I also rolled a few new Beauty Roulette goals for summer. Here they are:

• Purge another item.
• Use half of a lipstick.
• Use something that deserves more love.
• Finish any product.
• See how far you can get with a product in 2 months.

I won't be picking specific products to attach to these goals this time, mostly because what I rolled is either already in practice (ex: I want to see how far I can get with the above products over summer) or is very general (ex: finish any product).

I'll try to do a mid-season update; until then, wish me luck, and let me know what your goals are! :)